1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to paint brushes, especially those used for house painting.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Paint brushes have been cleaned previously by manually holding them under a faucet or tap, in the case of latex paints, with the ends of the bristles facing up towards the flow of water or solvent. Often the result of such action is the bristles would be bent in many directions out of shape. In addition, the brush had to be held under the flow for a significant length of time. Often when cleaned this way, the paint in the middle, inside, upper area of the said bristles, near the head of the brush, would not be completely cleaned off due to its hidden state. The said paint there would later dry and harden, thus stiffen the same brush, reduce flexibility, and subsequently adversely affect the future use of the brush.
Furthermore, the time it would take to clean the brush this way would be significant.
Another method of cleaning is to soak the brush, as with U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,149,628 and 3,955,670. However, the brush still requires rinsing using the same process described above.
The U.S. Pat. No. 1,928,929 named Craig, does not have any gaps between the inside perimeter of the ferrule and the outer periphery of the bristles, thus not allowing direct flow of water on to the bristles on the said outer periphery of said bristles, nor preventing pain on the said periphery of bristles from flowing on to the outside sides of the ferrule where the brush is held by the painter's hand.
Finally, another method of cleaning is to place the brush on a brush spinner, a device which spins the brush with the brush's handle as the axis. The brush must be first dipped in water or solvent. Then, when the spinner is spun, by virtue of centrifugal force, the paint on the brush is forced off. However, it takes several cycles of dipping then spinning to remove all paint, and again, often missed is the paint in the middle, upper, inside area of the bristles, which, as described above, later hardens and inhibits the full use of the brush.
Furthermore, due to the centrifugal force from the spinning, the bristles are bent outwards at all four sides, thus deforming the proper shape of the brush inhibiting its future use.